Review: MX JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND ... And Things of THAT Nature!

"I like to think of myself as a witch" admits Justin Vivian Bond without qualm. The New York-based performer goes by the gender-neutral title "Mx" (recently entered into the Oxford dictionary), challenging binaries that some would claim as laws of nature. In Bond's magical mise en scène, the Earth is misfits' and high-heeled "trannies'" for the taking.

Against the tatters of the Spiegeltent, Bond and her band play in the underground mood of cabaret. The uplifting strums of a folky opener are exchanged for Thomas Bartlett's moody swoops on the piano, his body cutting possessed shapes as it drapes over the instrument. Soaring above it, Bond's husky voice conjures a mysterious forest-scape of heartbroken wooers and Jean Genet clowns.

During interludes, her stream-of-conscious reminisences about her process are shot with comic expressions that elicit laughter from the crowd. That spontaneity underlines her own defiance of conventional categories, extending here to clear the stage and allow the breathtaking cameo by Aoife McAtamney and Michael Gallen to steal the show.

Drawing inspiration from sources such as poet Essex Hemphill and the Electric Picnic fields of Stradbally, Bond shows an artful ability to tune into varies frequencies and even address imbalance. The snarly voice in The New Economy welcomes the rest of the world as it crashes down to her level, rejoicing in the even playing field. In tingling moments such as this, Bond's hexes are powerfully sent out into the universe.

Run finished.

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